We're trying to fill the gap of someone who does not know the process.

-- Justin Strasburger, BOTTOM LINE SITE DIRECTOR IN WORCESTER

WORCESTER 
When Idaliana Medina, 20, was applying to college three years ago, she had a lot to sort through.

There was no question she was headed to higher education — her mother had made that clear — but she was the first in her family to go to a four-year college. Along the way, she received some extra help from Bottom Line, a Boston-based nonprofit that opened a Worcester branch during Ms. Medina's senior year of high school.

This spring, Ms. Medina will be among the first group of 15 locally grown college graduates from Bottom Line's Worcester branch, the organization's first outside Boston. A third branch opened in New York last year.

While Ms. Medina might have earned a bachelor's degree without Bottom Line, it would have been “probably more stressful,” she said. The organization worked with Ms. Medina, a 2010 Doherty Memorial High School graduate, as she received her acceptance letters and compared financial aid packages. They helped her see how expensive her first choice would have been and helped her decide on Worcester State University. Her counselor also helped her through a difficult first semester that prompted her to change her major. Regular visits with her counselor helped her choose courses, get on track to graduate on time — or in her case, ahead of time — and ensured her grades and financial aid kept pace. More recently, counselor Alicia F. Lincoln has been working with Ms. Medina on applications to graduate school programs in counseling psychology.

Although Ms. Medina's accelerated timeline and the close support of her mother, who will graduate alongside her, are exceptional, other aspects of Ms. Medina's journey are fairly typical of a Bottom Line client, said Justin Strasburger, Bottom Line's Worcester site director. Clients must be low-income, be in the first generation of their family to go straight into a four-year college in this country and must maintain at least a 2.5 GPA. They're referred by guidance counselors, friends, and local groups that work with youth, like the Boys & Girls Club and Dynamy.

“We're trying to fill the gap of someone who does not know the process,” Mr. Strasburger said, noting that high school guidance counselors are often too overburdened to give students intensive, one-on-one attention.

South High Community School Principal Maureen F. Binienda, some of whose students have worked with Bottom Line, praised the organization for focusing on college retention, not just admission. “It's a lot to navigate going from first person to graduate from high school to first person to graduate from college from your family,” she said. Many South alumni, some from overseas, call their old school with problems like not knowing what to bring to college or even how to switch beds if they're too scared to sleep in the top bunk. “Those little things that you just need to help, you have enough confidence to get over the hump is what Bottom Line does,” she said, adding it's also good for students to call their old high schools.

Colleges are recognizing the need for introductory support, too, she noted. At Worcester State, for instance, Ms. Medina attended a summer-long program before her freshman year.

Half of Bottom Line's students graduate from college within four years, 70 percent within five years and 74 percent within six years. That puts them well ahead of the norm for first-generation students. Nationally, just 43 to 46 percent of students whose parents did not go to college earn a bachelor's degree within six years of enrolling, according to a 2011 study prepared for the National Center for Education Statistics. That figure improves to 53 to 55 percent for students whose parents attended college but did not earn a bachelor degree, but it is still short of Bottom Line's average.

Bottom Line focuses on 34 “target” colleges in Massachusetts and New York where counselors can see as many clients as possible in one-on-one visits. Students who choose a different college do not get the same level of support. In Central Massachusetts, Bottom Line's target colleges are Clark University, College of the Holy Cross, Fitchburg State University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Worcester State University.

Of the group of 75 Worcester high school seniors that entered four years ago, 39 went to colleges where Bottom Line works, and 14 will graduate this spring. Ms. Medina , the 15th, started with the following year's class. Bottom Line helped, she said, because “It's somebody besides my mom to vent to.” When she is done with graduate school, she hopes to work someplace similar.